Puppets
by piggypond13
Summary: Harry, Ron and Hermione arrive at Hogwarts for a new term to find that their beloved divination teacher has fallen ill and taken a leave of absence. To fill her place, Dumbledore has hired a strange young man who likes to dress like a mismatched muggle in a pinstriped suit and trainers, and his lovely blond student teacher, Miss Tyler. What is really going on in the Wizard world?


"I can't believe the summer is up already. I hardly had a chance to do much of anything besides play guinea pig to Fred and Georges' little joke shop prototypes." Whined Ronald Weasley as he pulled on his school robes, his fiery red hair blazing against the gray and gloomy backdrop the train window presented him with. He, Harry and Hermione were all sitting together in the same compartment of the Hogwarts Express as they usually did upon their journey back to school.

"Just be happy you didn't spend the summer cleaning the bathroom every time your barmy cousin decides to eat a dozen boxes of chocolate in one sitting." Harry retorted as he too stood to slip on his school robes, accidentally elbowing Hermione in the ear in the process.

"Ow! Watch it Harry!" She cried from behind a thick textbook that she had earlier refered to as _light reading_.

"Sorry." Harry mumbled as he struggled to find his robe's other arm hole in the cramped space.

"Blimey Harry, every time you mention that awful family of yours I get the shivers." continued Ron, "I mean when I hear about your summer, mine doesn't seem nearly as bad in comparisson."

"That's the reason I tell you these stories Ron, so that you appreciate how wonderful your life really is, even if your mum is a bit...much sometimes."

"_Much_ is an understatement...she's mental she is."

"Yeah well, at least you have a mum."

Ron shrugged, "I guess you're right."

Just as Ron sat down the Hogwarts Express came to a sudden stop outside Hogsmead station, causing Harry to lose his balance slightly and trip over Ron's leg in the cramped space. He landed sideways on top of Hermione, his head in her lap, and had knocked her book under Ron's seat. He rolled on to his back so that he was looking straight into her face with his glasses slightly askew and smiled weakly up at her.

"S-sorry." He stuttered nervously, for he knew that even though her face was out of focus to his eyes at the moment, she was glaring down at him. He fixed his glasses and rose to his feet all in a series of quick and guarded movements, expecting any moment to be hit over the head by Hermione with her book.

"If you had just listened to me earlier, and put your robes on in the coridoor a good half hour ago, all of this could have been avoided." Hermione complained huffily.

"Yeah well, we were in the middle of something important." Ron explained.

"Yes," Said Hermione with great attitude, "because trading chocolate frog cards is all so important."

Ron rolled his eyes as Hermione slid her book out from under his seat. "She just doesn't understand us mate." he said to Harry in a low voice.

"I understand you perfectly well Ronald Weasley," spat Hermione, "And I would prefer if...Oh look, you've gone and made me lose my place!"

"Wasn't my fault! Harry's the one that fell!"

"But who's idea was it to trade chocolate frog cards when he should have been changing into his school robes, and who's leg was it that he tripped over?"

"Oh sure, find any reason you can to blame this on me. Isn't that how you always do it?"

Hermione grabbed her things off the luggage rack and pulled open the compartment door, "Well if you weren't always getting Harry to do stupid things..."

Ron had also taken his things down off the rack and had followed her out into the corridor, "Excuse me! Who is it that is always getting Harry to do stupid things? I reckon it's you-know-who that is always getting Harry into trouble not me."

"He only gets him into life threatening danger, Ron. The average, every-day stupidity usually is brought about by you." their voices were now starting to fade in with the rest of the crowd as they moved down the hall toward the nearest exit.

Harry sighed as he too grabbed his things off the luggage rack to hurry after his friends. As he struggled to move along the thin, crowded place with his heavy trunk and clunky owl cage he called after his friends, "Come on guys, it hasn't even been one day! Do you really want to start off a new term bickering?"

For it sure seemed that they did. Ron and Hermione continued their pointless argument all the way up to the castle and into the great hall. Having had dragged not only Ron's two older twin brothers into the the argument as well as some how the Malfoy family and Hagrid's overgrown spider, Aragog, Harry had had enough by the time they took their seats. He whipped out his wand and shouted _"Langlock!" _ and within milliseconds both Ron and Hermione were no longer capable of anything more than grunts. After a moment both of them realized that they were no longer capable of regular speech, panicked for a second, and then turned to glare at Harry. He just smiled back at them smugly.

"I won't tolerate you two arguing all through dinner again, and on my first night back." He warned just as Neville Longbottom took the seat next to him.

He gazed across the table, confused for a second and then resolved to an understanding smile. "They were arguing again so you jinxed their tongues to the roof of their mouths didn't you?."

"yup."

"Pretty clever Harry, but I would free them quick. Here comes McGonagall!"

Harry looked over his shoulder to find professor McGonagall walking briskly up the isle carrying the sorting hat. Behind her a long line of awestruck first years followed along like a line of ducklings chasing after their mother. Harry shot his friends a warning glance and then quickly freed them of their jinx before professor McGonagall figured out what had happened.

The sorting took a little longer than it had in the past. There seemed to be twice as many first years as there had been in the past. Or maybe the time just seemed to have passed a great deal slower because Harry's mind had been wondering. There was an empty seat up at the head table, the one where professor Trelawney, head of divination was suppose to be seated. That wasn't the most peculiar thing however. Especially when considered that professor Trelawney usually did not make trips down out of her tower to sit with the other teachers for the start of term feast or for any other occasion. No, the most peculiar thing, the thing that had Harry's mind wondering the most, was the extra seat that had been added to the table next to the empty seat and the young woman that sat in it. She appeared to be of average height with shoulder length, pin-straight blond hair, and a never fading grin that expressed her sheer enjoyment of every passing moment.

"Who do you think she is?" Harry whispered to his two best friends as the last few first years stood in line to be sorted.

"I don't know, but I hope she isn't a Gryffindor." Ron whispered back, "She looks rather arrogant if you ask me."

"Not the first year Ron, the new girl sitting up next to professor Trelawney's empty chair."

"Slytherin!" shouted the sorting hat.

"Well that explains the arrogance." mumbled Neville.

"New girl? What new..." Asked Ron as Hermione grabbed his head and forced it in the direction of the stranger sitting at the head table, "Oh, that new girl! I haven't the foggiest idea who she is, but she's gorgeous!"

Hermione shot him a dark look, "Oh come on Ron, if she's at the head table then she's way out of your league."

"Doesn't mean I can't look. After all, I have eyes for a reason."

"Seriously Ron, she's a teacher. Hitting on her would be creepy."

"Doesn't mean guys aren't going to do it." added in Neville, "Look at Seamus over there. I think someone needs to pop his eyeballs back into their sockets."

"Hufflepuff!" Interjected the sorting hat.

"But she can't be a teacher." argued Harry, "I mean, she can't be older than a seaventh year."

"Maybe she's a really advanced witch who graduated school early because of her accomplishments." Suggested Hermione.

"You would assume that." retorted Ron.  
"What's that suppose to mean!?"

"It means that I don't think it works like that."

"Why not? Why shouldn't a witch be rewarded for her great accomplishements?"

"Ron's right though Hermione, it doesn't make sense." added Harry.

"Maybe it's an anti aging potion." suggested Neville, "The witches these days, even the young ones, drink that stuff like it's pumpkin juice."

"I don't think that's it either. I have this weird feeling about her though, this feeling like something is wrong."

Hermione, Neville and Ron all exchanged a glance.

"Oh come on guys, when has my gut ever been wrong?"

But before any of them could make a proper response, professor McGonagall had announced the end of the sorting and professor Dumbledore had rose to his feet to announce the beginning of the start of term feast. After that they were all so busy stuffing their faces full of chicken legs and meat pies that they forgot what they had been talking about. It wasn't long though before they were reminded.

About half way through dessert, the doors to the great hall burst open and every pair of eyes in the hall turned to the funny looking stranger that had entered the room. A man with long, messily spiked brown hair in a long trench coat, brown pinstriped suit and tie with bright red high-tops came striding in. The whole room gawked at him as he made his way up the center isle. Some snickered, some whispered, and some just stared (like Ron) with their mouth full and pudding dribbling down their chin. When the stranger made his way to the head table he smiled sheepishly at Dumbledore, averted professor McGonagall's eyes, and then took a seat in professor Trelawney's empty chair. The strange blond girl rose an eyebrow at him, and he just turned and grinned a huge grin. The whole hall erupted in chatter.

A few minutes later Dumbledore rose to his feet for his annual start of term speech. The room fell instantly silent.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen," he greeted the room with a warm smile "To our first years welcome and to everyone else, welcome back. I have a few announcements to make before I dismiss you all to your dormitories, but first I would like to say that our beloved teacher and friend professor Trelawney has fallen ill and has had to take some time off."

The crowd broke out into an excited murmur.

"So in her absence," continued Dumbledore calmly and the room fell silent again, " a couple new faces will be taking her place. May I introduce to you professor Smith and his lovely student teacher, Miss Tyler." The Strange man in the mismatched muggle clothes and the beautiful blond girl in her long black robes that did indeed make her seem like a student, rose from their seats. The strange man, professor Smith, made a little bow and Miss Tyler just blushed a deep crimson and giggled. Snape shot them a nasty look from the opposite end of the table.

"Student teacher?" Asked Ron as he left the great hall and headed toward Gryffindor tower with his friends "Since When has Hogwarts ever had any kind of Student teachers?"

"There hasn't been one for over a century, but it isn't entirely unheard of." Harry mumbled back distractedly. His mind was still mulling over the new teacher's strange attempt at muggle attire while working at the school.

"Where do you learn all this stuff?"

"It's called Reading." snapped Hermione, "It was in the third chapter of 'Hogwarts a History'. The chapter titled 'Teachers over the centuries.'"

"Well excuse me."

"If you two don't knock it off I'm going to jinx your tongues again."

"We aren't aloud to use magic in the hallways." Hermione warned with a smirk.

"When has that ever stopped us before." chuckled Harry.

Meanwhile, on the giant spiral staircase leading up to the divination tower the new teacher and his companion were laughing giddily.

"And then professor Flitwick cracked that joke about the two opera singers and the snake and I thought I was going to spit pumpkin juice out all over professor McGonagall. She shot me this look like 'dark magic is not below me if you ruin my new robes'" Rose Tyler imitated her favorite professor's voice as well as she could.

"Yeah well did you see the look she shot me when I walked in late?" John Smith, or as he is better known as, The Doctor complained.

"Well, to be fair you did show up when there was only about a half hour of dinner left."

"Yeah, but Dumbledore didn't seem to be all that upset about it."

"That's because he's the kindly headmaster and he respects you. Why were you so late anyhow?"

"Reasons I will tell you later. Now is not the time nor the place. After all, we did take up jobs here because of the school's record. We go looking for trouble, and what a better place to find it than at Hogwarts?"

"True, but wasn't it kind of risky considering we're both...you know..." she paused on the staircase and dropped her voice to a low whisper, "Muggles."

The Doctor chuckled and shook his head.

"What?" Rose demanded.

"You just assume."

"Assume? Assume what?"

"That we are both muggles."

"Aren't we?"

"No. We're not."

"But.."

"But, I'm half human. On my mother's side."

Rose stopped short. They were just below the trap door that lead into the divination classroom.

"What?"She demanded.

"You heard me." he shrugged as he dug inside his suit's inside jacket for what Rose assumed was his screwdriver.

"Yeah, but that makes you a half breed Timelord, not a wizard."

"I said that my mother was human, not that she was necessarily a muggle."

"What, your mum was a witch?"

"Yup, but she gave up that life to raise me like a proper Timelord. But still, she taught me a few spells here and there when she had the chance. Divination was her strong point, so it's the subject I know most about."

"Me too. I bought that set of real-life Hogwarts books that came out as a children in need special, and divination was my favorite to read."

"Ah, here we go!" Cried the Doctor as he whipped a long wooden stick out of his pocket jacket pocket, "My wand! Well...my mother's wand anyway." He pointed it at the trap door leading to the divination tower and shouted _"Alohamora!"_ which caused the door to unlock. He pulled it open and a ladder slid down. "Well then, isn't that nice."

They climbed into the divination tower and with a wave of The Doctor's wand, all of the lamps flickered to life. The Doctor smiled with glee.

"Doctor," Rose probed as her companion explored the room, "Even though you may be a wizard, I'm still a muggle."

The Doctor spun around to meet her concerned face.

"Oh right...well um..." He reached into his jacket pocket once more "Dumbledore is aware of the fact that you are a muggle, and so is the ministry. However, they agreed that since you were with me and promised that you would tell no one of your adventures in the wizarding world, because even if you did people would think you are crazy, and because you are with me...ah ha!" He pulled another wand out from his pocket, "They agreed to give you this." He handed her the wand.

"I get my own wand?!" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Well, kind of... I mean it's a wand but it's an enchanted one. It can do basic spells and some defensive magic without you having to actually _be _magical to use them. For example, you can use a basic levitation charm for every day use but you have to know the incantation..."

Rose pointed her wand at a book laying abandoned on an old chair in the corner of the room, "_Wingardium Leviosa!" _she stated firmly and the book began to levitate. A huge grin spread across her face.

"You can also do basic shield charms, but don't expect to get a full bodied patronus. Also, you are incapable of using any kind of jinxes, curses or otherwise. They have given you deffensive magic, not offensive. Also, don't even attempt the _Avada kadavera_ or any other of the forbidden curses even for fun or the wand will explode, your memory will be wiped and you will be dumped off on a street corner in London without a clue as to who you are or where you are from. Your family won't remember you either. It will be as if Rose Tyler never existed, without killing you or erasing you from time."

Rose dropped the book she had been levitating around the room with a loud thud, "So I'll be worse off than Lockheart then."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Great."

"Sorry. Hope that didn't put a damper on your fantastic evening."

"Are you kidding me? I've got a wand! And I took part in the start of term feast at Hogwarts! Hogwarts for heaven's sake! What's more I'm going to be a blooming teacher here!"

"Ah, _student_ teacher."

"It's all the same to me." Rose waved a hand dismissivly, "Oh I wish I could tell mum and Mickey about this."

"You haven't even seen the best part yet." Said The Doctor with a sly grin as he pulled a roll of parchment out of his trench coat pocket.

"What have you got there?" Asked Rose, eyeing the parchment suspiciously.

"A class list."

She squealed with excitement and pulled up a chair, "Who've we got."

"Well, it looks like we've got Lavender Brown which ought to be interesting. Oh, and Draco Malfoy as well as his two henchmen. Um...Romilda Vane, Neville Longbottom, which is again going to be interesting, Luna Lovegood, annnddd...Oh Blimey!"

"What?"

"Blimey, Blimey!" The Doctor grinned from ear to ear.

"Who've we got?!' Rose asked anxiously.

"We have got the honor of teaching dear old Mr. Harry Potter and his best friend, Ronald Weasley!"

"You're Joking!"

"No, I'm not!"

Rose squealed with excitement once more and then looked down at her watch, "It's nearly midnight Doctor."

"Indeed it is. Well, off to bed with you Rose Tyler, we've got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow. We've got Longbottom first period."

Rose flinched at the idea of Nevillele being the first thing she had to deal with in the morning, "Right then. But Doctor, where am I suppose to sleep?"

"Uh, that's a very good question. Lemme see...um, _accio Rose's bed_!"

Suddenly there was a rumbling sound coming from the wall covered in beads and shawls that the previous professor had left behind, and then the sound of splintering wood as a huge four poster bed came hurtling across the room to the very spot that The Doctor was standing. Rose jumped behind a table for cover just as the bed arrived at her companion's side.

"Really? The summoning charm was the best you could think of?"

The Doctor just shrugged and grinned at the huge path of destruction the bed had left in it's wake.


End file.
